weekly round-up of our favorite finds from the front lines of food
- We found ourselves on a bit of a theme this week with stories from Scotland, and this little gem of a video sealed the deal. Above is a fine example of what the internet was really meant for — a goofy song featured animated Scotch Eggs.
- We love activist kids, and nine-year-old Scottish food blogger Martha Payne has jumped to the top of our list. Her blog NeverSeconds, which she started last May, has engaged kids (and grown-ups) around the world on school lunches. Her school district tried to shut down her reporting (which got covered in Wired and earned her props from Jamie Oliver) but she's still on task. And not stopping there, Martha is using her blog to raise money for UK charity Mary's Meals. She's already raised enough to feed 10,000 school children in Malawi for a year. (For more on the work of Mary's Meals, check out the trailer for the new documentary film Child 31.)
- It's a little geeky but a cool development for fisheries: the James Dyson Award goes to a new kind of net called a SafetyNet (link to a video that explains it all to you). "The goal of the SafetyNet system is to make commercial fishing more sustainable by significantly decreasing the numbers of non-target and juvenile fish caught during the trawling process."
- It's not just happy hour, it's biological diversity hour: Efforts to conserve Scotland's oldest cultivated barley have been boosted by its use in making beer and whisky.
- And now to mix it up, an only-in-New York story of the The Lox Sherpa of Russ & Daughters, famous smoked fish emporium of the Lower East Side. "After growing up on a diet of flour paste, cheese soup and butter tea, Mr. Sherpa now subsists on caviar and pickled herring and wild Baltic salmon. Instead of trekking in flip-flops, he hops the F train to work (when it’s running), and he prefers coffee to butter tea. “Forget about it,” he said. “You have to start your day with coffee in this city.”'
